In Venezuela, Ex-President Seeks Old Job

By ALAN RIDING, Special to the New York Times

Published: June 28, 1987

CARACAS, Venezuela—
When Carlos Andres Perez stepped down as President in 1979, Venezuelans seemed thoroughly exhausted by the dramatic economic changes and progressive foreign policy that had accompanied his five years in office.

He had nationalized the country's huge oil industry and iron ore deposits and had invested heavily in new steel and aluminum projects. He had also thrust Venezuela into the limelight, playing key diplomatic roles in the new Panama Canal treaties and the Nicaraguan revolution.

Mr. Perez, though, was not finished. ''A true politician only retires when the first handfuls of earth are tossed into his grave,'' he said. And, seemingly driven by what one friend called an almost physiological need to be President again, he became known as the man who could not stop campaigning. A Lifelong Dream

By law, any new bid for the presidency had to wait until two terms had passed, but he was never out of the headlines, first defending himself vociferously against corruption charges at home and then traveling abroad as he proselytized on behalf of an assortment of third-world causes.

Now, at the age of 64, Mr. Perez can at last channel his energies fully into trying to repeat his lifelong dream. ''I'm a full-time politician,'' he said in a recent interview. ''Seeing my popularity in the polls and sensing the support I had for another presidential term, I had to accept the challenge.'' Challenge From the President

Working in his favor is the evident nostalgia of many Venezuelans for the good old days of his first administration when high world oil prices brought the country unparalleled prosperity. After two successive Presidents who offered neither charisma nor excitement, there is even some yearning for Mr. Perez's old-style populism.

Yet while opinion polls show Mr. Perez as the strong front-runner to win both the nomination of the ruling Democratic Action party and the December 1988 elections, he still faces one major obstacle: the country's current President, Jaime Lusinchi, seems determined that he should not make it.

''I think Lusinchi would prefer to have the opposition win rather than see Carlos Andres return to Miraflores Palace,'' an adviser to the President said. ''It has become an obsession for him. For Lusinchi, Perez represents a personalist and centralized form of government that works to the detriment of the party.''

As a result, the President has thrown both his personal weight and vast Government resources behind the competing candidacy of Octavio Lepage, a colorless former Interior Minister and longtime party apparatchik, in the hope that Mr. Perez can somehow be stopped from grabbing the Democratic Action nomination. Patronage Is a Major Weapon

And, although Mr. Perez has been endorsed by the powerful labor movement and other key sectors of the Social Democratic party, the President and his candidate are focusing their campaign on the more restricted world of the 42 electoral colleges and 40,000 or so delegates who will pick the party candidate this October.

Their main weapon is the enormous patronage enjoyed by the President in a country where each Government traditionally rewards the members of its party with jobs and lucrative contracts. ''Many delegates are vulnerable to pressure simply because they and their families have jobs they don't want to lose,'' a party official said.

Because most of Venezuela's 18 million inhabitants live in northern coastal regions, the Lepage campaign believes that it can win if it controls the seven largest electoral colleges that represent the most populous states. ''Carlos Andres is besieging the party machine, but Lusinchi and Lepage think they have enough money to hold out,'' Rodolfo Schmidt, a prominent local journalist, explained. Advantage to a Clash

Mr. Perez, on the other hand, seems convinced that he has tied up the nomination with a different strategy. If electoral college delegates want to insure the party enjoys another five years of power, he argues, the polls have demonstrated they should not hesitate in picking him.

Since the Government party's standard-bearer has lost the last four presidential elections, Mr. Perez even says he sees an advantage to his clash with the President. ''I have no doubt that, for whatever the reason, Jaime Lusinchi does not want me to be the party candidate,'' he said. ''But it's not always helpful for the Government to support a candidate.''

In reality, the former President still has many enemies, not only party loyalists, who say they fear he will surround himself in the palace with cronies, but also those who assert that corruption flourished in his first administration. Since leaving office, Mr. Perez has also often irritated Washington through his outspoken criticism of United States policy in Central America.

As a candidate, though, he has sought to be conciliatory, confident that his past record is now remembered positively. He noted, for example, that the huge industrial projects for which he was once fiercely criticized are now fully operational. He also recalled that a congressional investigation cleared him of corruption charges.

''I am not rich,'' he said. ''There are two things you can't hide in life - a cough and a fortune.''